Long Term Goals

Looking at the calendar earlier today I noticed that we are approaching the end of July in 2020.  We’ve made it past the halfway point of this incredibly strange and life changing year.  The last few months have been more than just “interesting times” to live in, but as a society we have changed/are changing.

When this all began in mid March many of us were scared of what was coming next.  I remember all too well being at the local grocery store just before the province made the announcement that the schools would be closed for 2 more weeks after March break.  The flood of people made their way to the store, filling their carts with all the food they could hold and a few dozen packages of toilet paper as well. There was a lot of uncertainty.

There were more questions than answers coming from everyone. People turned to government for direction and hope.  For the next few weeks after that I recall people sharing links to see the daily press conferences from the Prime Minister and Premier of Ontario.  On Facebook there were many “watch” parties as we shared links to watch live as more and more details came out about COVID19.

How many were affected? How many were in hospital? Were our hospitals able to manage the load of new patients we were expecting to hit the ICU’s? How long was this going to last?

Day by day we got more answers and over the last few months the level of anxiety has gone down but not dispensed. We went from “how do we battle this unseen virus” to learning more about how its transmitted and words like “social and physical distancing” were quickly added to everyone’s vocabulary.  We went back to the basics.  Wash your hands. Sneeze into your arm. Watch for signs of COVID19.

Today, we are still a little on edge, but we were getting used to the “new normal” as it was called.  2 meters or 6 feet or is it a hockey stick distance? How far is far enough to stand from someone without putting them or yourselves at risk? What is stage 2 or 3 and how quickly can we get there?

So now as we enter August, we know summer will be ending soon and our thoughts turn to our children.  Are they going back to school and what will that look like?  Many of us need to work and while most of us managed “ok” being the school principal and teachers from March until June, we still don’t know what that will look like this coming September. 

All of this has put being an elected official…a town councillor…local leader…into perspective.

We have spent the last few months reacting to everything.  From mandatory mask bylaws to relaxing parking requirements to managing the staff levels at Town Hall.  It seemed that every week something came up and we had to react to it immediately.  I can say with all honesty I am eternally grateful for the staff and senior management at the Town of Milton.  Councillors for the town have been reassured at all levels that the town and regions business will continue.  Staff did have to be laid off during this crisis and there are many people hurting because of that.  It was a necessary decision to make and in comparison, to many municipalities in Halton and in the province of Ontario we have done very well.  Has there been a negative impact on finances? You bet there has and its something that we have to look at long and hard over the next few weeks as we begin to prepare the 2021 Town and Region budgets. But when you look at the whole picture, a lot of good was done.

We have been able to keep business continuity at the Town of Milton.  Permit applications continued to be processed from home offices and many fees continued to be collected. As a corporation we offered tax deferral programs for residents and businesses suffering from not being at work or if you lost your income and job. We quickly made changes to bylaws to allow restaurants the ability to open their patios to help them stay in business with great success.

But still, overall there are some challenges to face financially as we continue in 2020.

As I review the finances of other municipalities in the Greater Milton Area (GMA) I see many of them with significant shortfalls that need to be overcome. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and Association of Municipalities in Ontario (AMO) in coordination with groups like the Large Urban Mayors Caucus of Ontario (LUMCO) and others lobby both the provincial and federal governments for assistance in helping municipalities balance their books. 

Many are not aware that municipalities can not run an annual deficit like you would see the provinces and federal governments do.  We have to balance our books and not run a deficit.  With no programming available, there is reduced revenues.  When the ridership of our transit goes down, again so does our revenue stream.  These are the pitfalls of a lot of services we provide taxpayers.

Myself along with Milton council, will soon be reviewing our budget call reports – which is our staff outlining what we need to do to finance the services we have to and want to provide the residents of Milton.  They will ask what council’s priorities are while balancing it with what we have available and making sure it all aligns with our master plan and our long term goals.

Long term goals.

In the craziness that the last few months have been, I’ve struggled hard to keep focus on what needs to be done as the situation changes weekly, or daily or in fact even hourly and balance that with what our long term goals are.  What is the action plan for Milton as we move ahead to our next phase of growth even though the last phase doesn’t feel likes its over yet.

The province of Ontario directs municipalities in their growth plans.  For Halton it went from 800,000 people in the region by 2041 which quickly changed to 1,000,000 by the same time frame. The province is even reviewing that review and those numbers might change and the time frame extended to 2051.

Its like playing a game of football and while you’re in the middle of game time, the refs decide to move the goal posts out further and change the rules of the game at the same time.  Another analogy would be you start of running a half marathon and then as you get into the groove, the organizers change their mind and make it a full marathon.  Fair right?  That’s our reality.

Let’s get back to the long-term goals.  These don’t just include what the population total is going to be.  There’s a lot more to it than that.  Its how many jobs & residents there are per hectare; how much revenue in development charges can be raised over this time to fund things like infrastructure, roads, parks, cricket pitches and soccer fields: where are the new shopping centres going, and designing the streets to be as transit friendly as possible. All of THAT while trying to balance the costs that are involved in constructing this new community and even further to that, balancing it with the needs of a growing population while keeping the impact to our environment in check.

A lot of time this term has been put into what we called “Lets Talk Milton” This was a series of open houses, information sessions, brainstorming groups, as well as an online component for Miltonians to have their say.  What kind of a community do we want to build? Do we want to continue with single family dwellings which some might say contributes to urban sprawl and have a negative impact on the environment?  Or do we need to look at different housing types to create a more balanced housing market?

Single family homes are great as many of us live in them, but is it enough? How about intensification? What kind of intensified growth is good? Condo? Rental? Are we missing some parts of the market?  Executive housing is lacking in Milton as is the availability of rental properties.

If you look at the demographics of Milton over the last 20 years, you will have seen an amazing change.  The average age is a lot younger now that it was before the “big pipe” was built. We now have an average age of 34 in Milton.  Young families coming to a great town with access to other bigger cities but not be a big city.  We are steps away from the escarpment and so many natural heritage areas which makes us the envy of a lot of places. With more young families moving in brings more children. As our demographics and the markets continue to change, we’re seeing more multi-generational homes.  Grandparents and parents living with their children while raising even younger children.

This brings in even more demand on municipal services and programming.  Camps, swimming, soccer fields, cricket pitches, trails and bike lanes are at the top of the list of wants.  We have to balance our wants and needs in order to make it work.  Not simply react to each thing as it comes.  We’re doing ok with that right now and we have been doing it for some time now to be quite frank.  As a member of council, we seem to get pulled in many directions as residents reach out to us to have questions answered and some guidance of where this all heading.  Sometimes we get caught up in the small things or what some might call “operational items” as opposed to being more “tactical”

Don’t get me wrong, I love to help out as well. Its part of being a public servant and an elected official.  I want to be there to help when I can and I do my best. I don’t want us to lose focus and even more I don’t want to look back in 2041 and have regrets. It would be a real tragedy if it was said “we should have done this or that back then.” By that time, its way too late.

All of this brings me back to those three words earlier…Long Term Goals.

I have had the privilege of being on Milton Town Council and Halton Region for almost 10 years and we have been doing a good job managing the growth of the last 20 years.  Some might and will argue with that last statement but that’s a post for another time.

In this last term of council, we have been working on an official plan review both at the Town and Region level. It is still in the infancy stages of that process and that’s why I feel it’s a good time to bring this to your attention.

We still must deal with COVID19 and how it will affect us going forward.  What will the planning process look like? What will our recreational programs and day camps look like in 2021 and beyond? So many questions and I want us as a community to really start asking ourselves these questions now so that we’re not reacting to them when issues arise but we have a solid plan of action that has some wiggle room to it, just for these types of situations.

Milton Council and town staff have come up with a lot of master plans for growth.  The mobility hub that is planned for around the Milton GO Station is a great example.  Trying to design an area that promotes transit, active transportation as well as providing a place to live and entertainment for us to enjoy.  The Milton Education Village is another long-term master plan to bring Laurier University and Conestoga College to our area and be an education and innovation centre to help foster entrepreneurship and new technologies. The Trafalgar / Agerton corridor is another master plan to work on bringing more jobs, office and industrial commercial growth as well as mixed use housing and with that the hopes of a second GO station.

That’s the tip of the iceberg when it comes to master plans. I have not even touched on plans for downtown revitalization, transit, environmental protection, diversity, & economic development in Derry Green and other areas of Milton.

Over the next few weeks and months, I want to be able to outline my vision for what our long term goals should be and to hear from you as well.  It’s a two way street of communication and I need to hear from you and you need to hear from me.

I’ll be outlining in more detail where we should be going over the next few years and the upcoming decades.  Milton has been growing rapidly for the last 20 years and the next 20 years is just as important.  The vision we have has got us to this place and we need to make sure we have a vision going forward.

Stay tuned and feel free to comment.